Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (NFS:MW) is the 9th game in the Need for Speed series. It is a multiplatform racing video game developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. The game reintroduces police chases into a large body of the game's street racing-oriented gameplay with certain customization options introduced in the Need for Speed: Underground series. It is possible that this game's plot is somehow linked to Need for Speed: Underground 2 as the word "Bayview" was mentioned once. The game is succeeded by Need for Speed: Carbon which serves as a sequel to Most Wanted. Most Wanted was released for PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and mobile phones. An Xbox 360 was later launched to coincide with the consoles release. Another version of Most Wanted was released for the PlayStation Portable entitled "Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0". A special collector's "'Black Edition'" edition of Most Wanted was released in celebration of the Need for Speed series' tenth anniversary and in conjunction with the release of Most Wanted. The Black Edition features additional races, bonus cars and a special challenge. The Black Edition also came with a special feature DVD that contains interviews and videos relating to the game. Every Need for Speed title after Most Wanted was released with a special collector's edition. Plot The opening of the Career Mode sees the player arriving in Rockport with a BMW M3 GTR following Mia (played by Josie Maran). The player is then pulled over by Sergeant Cross' Chevrolet Corvette C6.R at an intersection. Cross notices the Player's car and proceeds to talk to explain that the police are cracking down on street racing in Rockport. Cross and his partner get called to a chase in progress. Cross uses his car key to scratch the player's M3 GTR in a display of frustration of being able to arrest the player. He then comments on the M3's new "pinstripe". Races seems to be in the player's favor until a group of "cheaters" led by the game's antagonist Razor (played by Derek Hamilton) sabotages the player's engine and seizes their car. The player is then arrested by Cross without a ride resulting in the player being released due to a lack of evidence. Mia picks up the player and then informs the player about Razor's plans for Rockport. She then helps out the player by giving them a choose of "starter car" so they can work their way up the Blacklist (a group of drivers most wanted by the Rockport Police Department) and eventually beat Razor. The final rival challenge sees the player race against Razor. The player reclaims his M3 GTR but Mia reveals that she is actually an undercover police officer. Mia throws the keys to the player and yells at them to go. Razor is taken into custody and the player is pursued by the entire Rockport Police Department under the command of Cross. The player manages to slip to leave Rockport by jumping his car over an incomplete bridge that Mia points out to the player in a phone call. Cross issues a 'Most Wanted' status over the player and lists them in the National Most Wanted List. Need for Speed: Carbon's storyline acts as a sequel and takes place just after Most Wanted. 'Gameplay' 'Blacklist' In order to advance in the game, the player has to literally climp up a so called Blacklist. The Blacklist lists the best racers in the city of Rockport. To climp up, it is necessary to beat pursuit records achieved by a rivalling Blacklist driver. But there's also a limit of won races, which the player has to accomplish, too. However, even if the player has achieved both, his bounty must surpass the one from his rival. A lower bounty makes it impossible to challenge a Blacklist racer and no pursuit as well as race achievements, won't let the player start a challenge either. 'Enviroment' The entirety of Most Wanted is set during daytime with some occurrences of rain that can impact a car's handling. The whole enviroment of the game is consists of industrial, urban and rural areas. Like in the previous game, large territories are connected by highways. In Most Wanted it is also possible to drive in remote forestlands. Except for the cars, there's virtually no sign of life in this game. Free Roam Free roam is limited to career mode only. The player can freely cruise around three districts of Rockport and may become involved in a police chase. Outruns are no longer available as well as AI street racers in free roam mode. 'Racing' Circuit Races, Drag and Sprint Events are included again, but Drift Races, Street X and Tournaments are no present in the game. New race types such as Speedtrap Races and Tollbooth Time Trials we're added. Both the Speedbreaker and Pursuit Breakers are available for the player to use at any time. 'Pursuits' Police chases have been integrated into certain racing sessions. The police deploy vehicles and tactics to either slow down or halt the player's car. Players may drive several police cars in the Challenge mode but they are solely used in checkpoint races. Most Wanted pursuits are more intensive and challenging compared to previous titles. Players can be chased by more than twenty police cars at one time that can be destroyed through the triggering of 'Pursuit Breakers'. 'Cars' Need for Speed: Most Wanted marked the return of supercars in this title, which were absent in the previous Underground games. Muscle cars increased in numbers, too. Still tuners are available in large quantities. 'Customization' Tuning overall is not as extensive as seen in the Underground games. The game is more focussing on the action of racing and police chases. Performance Customization Lightweight and ECU tuning was dropped in Most Wanted. Fine-tuning is no longer as comprehensive as in Need for Speed: Underground 2 and can be only done in free roam mode in the pause menu. Junkman parts also appear which are special car parts that can be won from beating Blasklist racers. Visual Customization Many visual customization options seen in the last two games were cut from Most Wanted. It is only possible for players to equip Bodykits, Rear Spoilers, Rims, Vinyls and Window Tint. The speedometer of a car can still be modified as well as the bonnet. Visual modifications can be changed to lower a car's heat level. 'Car List' There are a wide range of vehicles although the beginning of career mode only offers four relatively low performance vehicles. If the player has a gamesave from Need for Speed: Underground 2 then the game will thank the player for playing it and will add a bonus of $10,000 to their bank. Cars in all versions of Need For Speed: Most Wanted Challenge Exlusives *Blue Pickup Truck (roadblock challenge) *Cement Truck (bounty) *Civic Cruiser (spikestrip challenge) *Federal Corvette (tollbooth) *Garbage Truck (cost to state challenge) *Pizza Delivery Car (tollbooth) *Police GTO (tollbooth) *Red Minivan (tollbooth) *Rhino SUV (evade in 4 minutes) *Taxi Cab (tollbooth) Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0 Need for Speed: Most Wanted: 5-1-0 is the PSP version of the game which differs from its box big console, Gameboy Advance, PC and mobile phone counterparts. One of the differences includes Tuner Take Down which allows players to play as the cops and bust racers unlike the other versions of the game. Tuner takedown is already available at the beggining of the game. Also the Blacklist Racers in this version are listed by their real names instead of their nicknames. Trivia *If you lose the police in a pursuit sometimes you will hear that the police have captured the wrong streetracer and say that his name is Ronnie McCrea, who is the 3rd member of the Blacklist. The police also mentions Clarence "Razor" Callahan and a "Female Undercover Officer" who is later identified as Mia Townsend. *Sometimes in a pursuit, the helicopter may land on the road to be part of the roadblock and the helicopter has been seen hitting traffic vehicles during pursuits. *The event "Blacklisted" from Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010) appears to refer to the Blacklist in Most Wanted and some of the police cars are Chevrolet Corvette Z06s - refering to Cross' C6 - albeit different models. However it is still unknown if Criterion Games - creator of Hot Pursuit (2010) - did refer this event to Most Wanted - the event more likely refers to the player's vehicle, the Mercedes-Benz Black Series. *Sergeant Cross's Chevrolet Corvette C6.R changes between the cut scenes and gameplay. The Corvette featured in cut scenes is a Chevrolet Corvette C6.R. The car used when he appears in an in-game pursuit has the same body model as other Corvette police cars but sports the unique paint work of his car in cut scenes. This is more likely to be a technical limitation of the game. *The customized BMW M3 GTR featured prominently in the game and its cover art was also recreated in real-life by the SPEED Channel television program Tuner Transformation using a 2-door coupé BMW 330Ci upgraded with M3 GTR performance parts, as well as with customized vinyls and body parts to the likeness of the in-game car. However, the finished car did not resemble the in game M3 GTR at all. * Various gaming modders have found out how to crack the game's file format, and have added many numerous cars, including the famous Ferrari 360 Spider and the Nissan Skyline GT-R R34. Others also found a way to download vinyls from Blacklist cars. See Also *Tracks in Need for Speed: Most Wanted Category:Need for Speed Series Category:Cars in Need for Speed: Most Wanted Category:Games